Gérgal Castle was built somewhere during the Late Middle Ages during Muslim rule. By 1492 it had fallen into the hands of the Catholic Monarchs; Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They donated the castle to Alonso de Cárdenas, Grand Master of the Order of Santiago, for outstanding services during the Granada War.
During the 16th century it played an important defensive role against the inland raids of Barbary pirates, who were supported by the remaining Moorish population. In 1568 the Moors rebelled and the Christians in Gérgal were massacred and the Moors held the castle. They were driven out some time later and the castle was destroyed by Christian forces to avoid a repeated use by the Moors. Between 1571 and 1620 all the Moors were expelled from the Iberian mainland. This left the area around Gérgal Castle depopulated and open to banditry.
During the first half of the 17th century Gérgal Castle was rebuilt on the site of the old Muslim fortification to restore order and favor repopulation in the area. In the middle of the 18th century it belonged to Isabel Pacheco Portocarrero, Countesss of Puebla del Maestre and Marchioness of Torre de las Sirgadas. She used it for storing storing grains.
The castle we see today dates back to the rebuilding in the 17th century. Its core is a square crenellated tower with lower round towers at its corners. At its north western facade and attached to one of the corner towers is a semicircular bastion. It is build up out of horizontally laid slabs of slate. The castle is now also equipped with a crenellated outer wall, but this was built by the present owner.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).